


Sunrise Breaking Through The Night

by Sinna



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Gen, I maybe went overboard with the worldbuilding, Nonbinary Character, POV Outsider, there are a lot of OCs and most of them are some form of trans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26012095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: There are two kinds of goblins in the Labyrinth.A goblin is assigned to watch over the girl Sarah as she traverses the Labyrinth.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	Sunrise Breaking Through The Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roolime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roolime/gifts).



> I've loved Labyrinth for a long time, but never quite felt the urge to write fic for it. Sarah's character arc is so beautifully rendered, that I felt like nothing I could write would add anything to her story. But when Roolime suggested an outsider fic from the point of view of one of the goblin characters, I fell in love with the idea. This has been one of the most interesting and challenging fics I've ever written, and I really hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Title is from the Mechanisms album Ulysses Dies at Dawn, because it's set on a planet called Labyrinth and I like to think I'm clever.

There are two kinds of goblins in the Labyrinth.

Well, that’s not precisely true. There are as many kinds of goblins as there are goblins themselves. But, broadly speaking, they can be divided into two categories: The Taken and The Seekers.

Since the beginning of time – or so they say – the Goblin King has taken children from the mortal realm at the wish of their guardians. Plenty have viewed the loss as good riddance. The Goblin City is mostly populated with those children – The Taken. Time in the Labyrinth quickly changes their forms, and they become Jareth’s citizens. Most take to it easily, being too young to miss their life Before.

But sometimes, the one who wishes the child away regrets that decision. To those few, Jareth offers an ultimatum: Solve the Labyrinth, or lose the child forever. Even fewer actually take him up on the challenge. But there have been many wishers in the eternity since time began. A tiny fraction have successfully rescued their children. But most find that their time in the Labyrinth passes away without getting anywhere near the goblin palace. And as time goes on, they find themselves becoming a part of the puzzle they sought to solve. These are The Seekers, the guardians of the labyrinth who become rarer the closer one comes to the Goblin City.

Arlept had never seen any of The Seekers in person, but they knew that such things existed. They’d seen images of them in Jareth’s crystal ball. They’d seen the strange looking humans seeking desperately to solve the labyrinth, and they’d seen those same humans give in to despair, or confusion, or simply the time limit, and begin to change into stranger forms.

Arlept themself was one of the Taken. Like most residents of the Goblin City, they were happy enough with their lot in life. There were bits and pieces that they still remembered of a childhood before they’d come here. Warm arms holding them against a cold night. A shaky cough that occasionally continued to plague them with phantom pains. Warmth shining through a distant doorway. But for the most part, the life of a goblin was all they knew. They happily spent their life as part of Jareth’s goblin court, playing games and entertaining their king and his guests.

The newest Taken was younger than most and dressed in red and white striped clothing. It kept wailing, and Arlept desperately hoped that it would stop that as it became one of them. It would, unfortunately, perfectly match the humor of the Labyrinth’s magic for a wailing child to become a screaming goblin.

“Can’t the king shut that thing up?” a fellow goblin muttered within Arlept’s hearing, voicing what most of them were thinking.

That one was new, if Arlept recalled correctly, and they didn’t recall its name. It was certainly making the mistake of one who hadn’t been around long enough to know better.

The rookie goblin was perhaps the only one surprised when King Jareth appeared behind it and dumped the wailing child into its arms.

“Perhaps you’d like to try quieting it?” he suggested coolly.

“Yes, your majesty,” it muttered, shaking the baby in an attempt to quiet it and only making it louder.

Jareth laughed, and did nothing to discourage the madness.

Finally, Veena marched up and plucked the baby away from the both of them. She was one of the older ones, and she remembered more of her past than most – an eldest son wished away at age fourteen by a jealous younger sibling. She wrapped the baby in her arms and began to rock it gently.

“Hush, love, Veena’s got you,” she murmured.

After a few moments, the baby’s cries faded from full wails to quiet snuffling and the surrounding goblins breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

Jareth looked like he might protest, but Arlept had caught that he was not nearly so immune to the sound of children screaming as he might pretend to be, so he let Veena and the newest Taken be with only a disdainful look.

“There you go,” Veena muttered softly. “You’ll be one of us soon enough, child.”

Arlept watched her as some sort of memory twisted up in their stomach. Something about her manner reminded them of- They quickly pushed the thought away. There was nothing to be gained from remembering the time before they’d come to the Goblin City. Those who got too caught up in their past ended up like Ol’ Grumbly, who sat and wept in corners over a family long gone.

“I need a volunteer,” Jareth announced.

Caught up in ignoring the feelings Veena’s tenderness stirs in them, Arlept was too slow to back away in time.

“You’ll do,” Jareth declared, plucking them up by the back of their neck.

They barely had the time to raise a squeak of protest before Jareth was tossing them through the air. A translucent bubble appeared before them, and suddenly they were falling through the air and into the depths of the Labyrinth.

“Keep an eye on Sarah,” Jareth’s voice whispered in their ear. “And let me know if anything interesting happens.”

It took Arlept only a moment to realize who the king was referring to. A human was racing her way along the outer corridor of the labyrinth, determinedly avoiding its every turn. This must be the new child’s seeker. Sarah, was it? They took off after her, cursing her unfairly long legs. Was she just going to keep running around the whole length of the labyrinth? That wasn’t going to do her much good. She’d just tire herself out.

Not that Arlept hadn’t seen people end up stuck at this stage before, but they couldn’t help wishing that this girl would be a bit more interesting. If they had to be stuck following her around, she could at least do that.

The last Seeker had nearly made it. Coda, who’d been assigned to watch that particular Seeker, wouldn’t stop bragging about it. Just because _hir_ Seeker had been talented and clever shouldn’t mean anything about Coda.

…Even if Arlept was one of the many Taken gathered around as xe retold every detail again and again.

In the distance, Sarah’s shouts of frustration suddenly broke off as she leaned down to inspect something near ground level.

Sarah seemed to have found someone to talk to – there were always plenty of people to talk to if you knew where to look. While she conversed with whatever small creature had caught her attention, Arlept managed to catch up.

“Don’t go that way,” the small wormlike creature warned her. “Never go that way.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Sarah didn’t even stop to ask why. She just raced off. Well, she wasn’t going to make it very far.

The little worm looked over to see Arlept rushing after her.

“If she had kept on going down that way, she'd have gone straight to that castle,” it noted with smug glee.

Arlept doubted that was true. The labyrinth was never so simple. But they supposed it didn’t much matter either way. Most of the Seekers seemed to find glee in the idea of pulling others down with them. If it made the creature happy, it was a harmless enough fantasy.

Abruptly, Arlept realized this was the first time they had met a Seeker in person. It seemed like it should be a momentous occasion. For all they knew, this strange little worm had once challenged the Labyrinth for their sake. It’s not like they would know, with how the Labyrinth had changed both of them.

But the girl was moving fast, and Arlept barely had time to think of such things as they were rushing after her, pulling their long coat behind them.

A few twists and turns later, Sarah emerged from the corridors into a more open area. Arlept leapt behind a fallen stone as she turned to look behind her, confusion clear on her face. Did she think the labyrinth was going to be all like that? Just empty stone corridors? That would be far too simple.

Then again, she was not showing signs of being exceptionally smart. She’d need to adapt – and quickly – if she wanted to avoid becoming another creature of the Labyrinth.

She crouched down to mark the stones with some sort of gold tube, leaving a red arrow behind, and Arlept was forced to admit that maybe they were misjudging her. Apparently, she wasn’t completely unable to think.

Not that that particular strategy would help her any. The labyrinth was a living creature. Defeating it was about more than just making marks and testing possibilities. But she was starting to think about this. Maybe she actually had a chance.

Or maybe not. As she noticed her marks changing, she began once again screeching about how unfair everything was.

“What a horrible place! It's not fair!”

Arlept had little sympathy for her cries. If she knew anything about fairy tales, she should know that it was always easier to make mistakes than to fix them. To rewind time and undo something you wish you’d never done? That took an impossible task. There were always ways to succeed, of course, but it was never _fair._

Arlept had to wonder what she considered fair. She was the one who had wished away the child. Had she thought it was fair when she did that? To subject a creature under her care to such a change with no warning or say in the matter? While Arlept didn’t think they minded being a goblin, from what little they remembered of the human world, they did wish they had been given the chance to choose for themself.

And they were falling behind again. They really didn’t want to see what Jareth would do to them if they lost her.

Off in the distance, they could hear her talking to the doormen.

“Then the other door leads to the castle, and this door leads to certain death.”

Oh, dear.

They scrambled after her, catching her just as she went through one of the doors with a self-satisfied smile.

“No, it's right. I've figured it out. I couldn't do it before. I think I'm getting smarter!”

And she didn’t even think to look where she was going.

A nasty trap that one was. Arlept had seen Seekers fall to it before. Get too caught up in the cleverness of the puzzle, and you forgot that there weren’t any rules in this place. At least, not easy rules like that. You couldn’t trust anyone here to be what they seemed, or what they claimed to be.

They slipped through the door just before it closed and found themself at the top of a yawning pit full of moving hands.

“Excuse me,” they asked. “Which way have you taken the Sarah girl?”

A gaping mouth formed of the hands in the wall opposite them.

“She chose down,” it snickered.

“Right, I need to follow her, please?”

A hand reached out for them. Arlept nervously stepped into the waiting palm and tried to ignore the mocking faces forming and breaking apart as they were transported down the chasm by the laughing hands.

While they weren’t afraid of falling, the tumble when they reached the bottom was still disconcerting. They jumped to their feet, looking nervously around them.

Oh perfect. They were still in the first hour, and the girl had found herself in an oubliette.

They debated contacting the king. Did this count as “interesting”? It seemed rather the opposite. Before they could make a decision, Hoggle wandered into the oubliette.

Which meant Jareth probably already knew what was going on, right? It was out of their hands?

Hoggle was one of the earliest Seekers, or so they said. In the centuries that he’d been here, he’d become a sort of gatekeeper of the Labyrinth, setting people off on their journeys, and coming to fetch them back to the beginning when things like this happened. Hoggle knew the Labyrinth better than anyone.

Or so they said. Arlept wasn’t quite sure who “they” were, but everyone seemed very convinced of these facts, so Arlept wasn’t about to argue with them.

Instead, the little goblin watched as Sarah bartered a jeweled bracelet to convince Hoggle to betray the Goblin King. She must love her child a great deal to offer up such a treasure for such an uncertain gain.

(Had anyone ever loved Arlept enough to sacrifice such a thing for them?)

Arlept held their breath as Hoggle eyed the bracelet, and then agreed to the trade. As the two left the oubliette, Arlept struggled with a sudden attack of conscience. Jareth would definitely want to know of such a thing. He would definitely be furious if Arlept failed to inform him.

And yet…

A small part of them wanted to keep quiet. To see if the Sarah girl might manage to rescue her child after all. She clearly loved it. The odds were already stacked against her. What harm could it do to give her a chance?

But the consequences were too high. They instead reached into their coat and found a glass ball. They hadn’t put such a thing into their pocket, but they had known it would be there. How else would they contact their King?

“The Sarah girl has won over the gatekeeper,” they whispered into the ball, before rolling it across the floor.

It disappeared in a puff of smoke before it hit the opposite wall.

“Is that so?” a voice asked from behind Arlept, and they turned to see the Goblin King himself striding towards them. “We’ll see about that.”

“Your majesty!” They bowed nervously, then found themself running after him, a tiny seed of regret planting itself firmly in their gut.

But what else could they do?

When they caught up, Sarah was trying to be brave, and instead being foolish.

“It’s a piece of cake.”

Of all the things to say to the Goblin King…

Jareth may not have any real power over Seeker or Taken, but Jareth could certainly make her trial that much harder. And that he did, taking an entire hour of her time away and no doubt laughing at the despair on her face.

He then set the cleaners on her and her new friend before he disappeared with a characteristic magic trick. Arlept yelped and threw themself into a small hole in the wall. If Jareth wanted them to watch the girl, you’d think he could make things a bit less difficult for them.

Then again, maybe he expected things to end here, and Arlept was just a loose end to be cleaned up with the rest.

That was an unpleasant thought.

Against all odds, when the cleaner was passed, all three of them had managed to survive it. Sarah and Hoggle managed to immediately get into another argument, an event which Arlept already found extremely predictable. They mostly tuned out the details of their angry words.

But then two did eventually manage to find a ladder, and a way back to the more travelled paths of the Labyrinth. Arlept followed them up.

To their surprise, they recognized the next creature the two bumped into. He looked different now, but he was a recent enough that Arlept still remembered watching his journey in Jareth’s crystal ball. He’d thought himself very clever, this one. The Labyrinth had proven otherwise.

Arlept had never quite thought about the reality of things before. Not like this. They watched every new Taken goblin in their transformation, but they’d never thought too hard about the Seekers. They were left alone with their failure. The King never thought about them again, so Arlept never thought of them again. They’d never seen one that was still recognizable to them.

The wise man – Peter – had been foolish, and thought far too highly of himself, but he’d been trying to save his daughters. Goblins who now reminded each other of the family they had lost. The two were always together. The youngest still sometimes asked when Papa was coming to rescue them. They were always quickly hushed by their brother.

For the first time, Arlept considered the fact that the Labyrinth punished those who tried to right their wrong and failed, but not – as far as they were aware - those who had no regrets for their wickedness.

For a moment, they empathized with Sarah’s constant insistence on fairness. They tried to banish the thought. It wouldn’t do them much good.

The loud cries of an unknown creature stirred both Arlept and Sarah out of their thoughts on the unfairness of the world. The gatekeeper and Sarah ran opposite directions, and Arlept found themself following the gatekeeper, at first. He, at least, was running in a sensible direction.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t run and stay out of sight.

“So you’re the one keeping an eye on Sarah then?” Hoggle asked them.

Arlept looked up, eyes wide, and nodded slowly.

“Suppose I can’t blame you,” Hoggle muttered. “Just stay out of my way. Clear?”

“Clear!” Arlept squeaked.

“And… be good to her? She deserves a chance.”

Arlept didn’t see anything special about this one, but maybe all of them deserved a chance. Maybe the child back at the castle deserved a chance to go back to the other world.

Arlept never minded growing up a goblin, but they sometimes wondered about the alternative. They tried not to dwell on the vague memories that swirled in their head. They think they’re much better here than they would have been back there.

But maybe the child in the castle now was different. Maybe he would prefer to be home. Maybe he deserved to be asked.

But Arlept couldn’t afford to think like that.

“I’ll… do my best,” they offered.

Hoggle sighed.

“I suppose that’s the best I’ll get out of one of you lot.”

There was more screaming, and then Hoggle was running towards the sounds. Arlept ran too, a bit more careful to stay out of sight.

In the thirty seconds or so that they’d had Sarah out of their sight, it seemed she had befriended a giant.

Arlept had seen Ludo before. Another seeker, another hopeless quest. Ludo was one of the helpful ones. If seekers were kind, Ludo made a powerful ally, and a good friend.

Of course, they’d also seen more than one seeker end their quest under a mountain of stone if they made the mistaken assumption than Ludo was a monster to be conquered.

For the first time, Arlept considered what it might be like for Ludo. Watching people make the same mistakes over and over again and knowing you had done no better. Knowing, and deciding over and over again to help. To be kind.

It must be terribly sad.

Somehow, being out in the Labyrinth, instead of just watching through the crystals, was making Arlept think of things they’d never considered before. They didn’t like it. Things had been simpler back at the castle. Something about this place, or maybe this girl, was getting to them.

While they were lost in thought, Sarah was speaking to the nearest set of Door Knockers.

Arlept watched as she struggled with their riddles and insults. Doors were always troublesome in the Labyrinth. Unlike most creatures in this place, they weren’t transformed seekers. They were something different. Something older and rooted in the very magic that made the place.

You had to be very careful with doors.

Sarah rushed through the doors, accompanied by her new friend, and Arlept rushed after them, only to pause at the familiar presence of the Goblin King. They pressed themself back among the hedges, as if that might save them from Jareth’s displeasure.

But it seemed they were not the subject of that displeasure right at this moment.

“Uh, well, the little lady gave me the slip, but I hears her now, so I was about to lead her back to the beginning like you told me,” Hoggle was babbling.

Arlept knew it for the lie it was, but they said nothing. This was none of their business. Besides, Jareth seemed to see through it well enough on his own.

As he berated Hoggle, Arlept crept towards the door Sarah had gone through, afraid that if they stayed they would become the Goblin King’s next target.

As usual, the door was more complicated than it had any right to be, leading to more of a cave than such a door should logically conceal, and Arlept found themself completely alone when they made it to the other side.

Undoubtedly, they would hear Sarah soon enough. The girl tended to be quite loud.

They stumbled off in their best guess of the direction she might have gone. Something about this forest…

There was a soft jingling in the distance.

As they approached, the sound grew louder, and there was an additional quiet muttering and the scraping of metal against metal.

“No, no, no… this one isn’t right either. Come on, come on. Open up, you.”

Arlept crept forward. That definitely wasn’t Sarah, but they found their curiosity overwhelming their sense of duty. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to just take a look? Maybe this creature had seen Sarah and could point them on their way?

They emerged into a clearing full of doors. Doors in the base of trees, door frames simply standing on their own, doors in the ground even.

In the middle of the clearing, a hunched figure was searching through a key ring nearly the size of their head, testing keys in the nearest doors’ many locks. She was tall, with gangly limbs and a pair of broken spectacles she kept pushing up on her nose.

“No, no no. Oh!” The figure’s face lit up. She smiled as one of the keys clicked, one of the four locks falling away from the door in the base of the thick oak-like tree.

Both lock and key vanished into smoke, and she smiled for a moment, before turning back to her work.  
Three locks remained.

As she fumbled through her key ring, Arlept noticed a soft click as a new key formed on it, and a gentle thud as one of the doors behind her grew another lock like a particularly metallic vine.

Arlept wondered how long she’d been here, trying to unlock all these doors. They didn’t have to wonder how much longer her task would take her.

They approached her with an unfounded sense of caution. She wasn’t one of the ones Seekers often encountered, but something about her seemed strangely familiar. Like they’d seen her more than just the once or twice as a distraction in the crystal ball.

“Excuse me?”

She jumped.

“Do you have more keys for me?” she snapped.

“No, I… have you seen a girl pass through here?”

She considered for a moment.

“How long ago? Haven’t seen anyone pass through here for a long time. ‘cept you.”

Arlept shrugged, oddly reluctant to end the conversation.

“Would have been just recently.”

“Oh? Nope. No girl. Want to help me with these keys?”

“Oh, um, I can try.”

Arlept only meant to try one key and then head off. But once the key ring was in their hand, they _knew_. They knew which keys would open which locks. They knew how to open the doors. They knew where each one led.

These doors, some of them were just normal labyrinth doors with nothing but trouble behind them. But mixed in with those…. Oh, there were doors to other lands. Other worlds entirely. Other times and places.

They met her eyes, and suddenly they saw her. Really saw her.

Beneath all the strange distorted limbs, they knew that face.

“You…”

“You…”

They had names, once upon a time. Those names no longer mattered and they both knew it.

“Arlept. I go by Arlept now,” they said quietly.

“Those that talk to me calls me Crilo,” she told them. “Mistress of the Doors.”

“I’m supposed to be watching over the newest Seeker,” Arlept explained. “But I lost her.”

“I’m sorry. Do you want me to help you find her?”

Arlept shrugged. Sarah and her quest had already faded to the back of their mind

“I know where they go,” they said, in lieu of a reply. “The doors, I mean. We could go home.”

“You know I wouldn’t- I hope you know… I loved you. I didn’t send you away to be cruel.”

She wrings her gangly arms, distress clear upon her beaked face.

“It doesn’t matter.” Arlept reached up and took her hand. “We’re together now, and we can go home.”

“I don’t think we can.” She shivered and rewrapped her shawl tightly. “It’s been a long time. Haven’t you felt it?”

Arlept wished they could explain what they saw to her. They saw freedom. They saw their past just waiting for them to return.

“Time isn’t part of the equation. I could take us back to the moment we left.”

“I’ll help you find the girl.”

“Crilo…”

Arlept didn’t understand. The time limit, that was all Jareth. The Labyrinth didn’t care about little things like time. Now that they were together again, they were free. They had changed, but once they went through the doors it could go back to the way it was.

Seekers always wanted to go home. That’s what how it happened. Find the Taken and go home. Go back to normal.

Arlept thought they could bear normalcy if it meant they had a family. And if they couldn’t, they’d come back. On their own terms.

“Come on, let’s go. She probably went towards the Wild Gang. They usually do.”

“Crilo!” Arlept planted themself on the ground. “Why don’t you want to go back?”

Crilo gripped her skirt tightly. “There’s nothing for us there! Okay?! That’s why I sent you away! We were dying, and I couldn’t take care of you and I thought anywhere would be better than there! I’m sorry if I was wrong.”

“Oh.”

Arlept had never thought about why they had been wished away. The story was almost always the same. Seeker wishes their responsibilities away in a moment of weakness, or Seeker genuinely hates the child and wants it gone.

They’d hoped for the first option. They’d never considered there might be other reasons.

“It’s not so bad here,” they admitted quietly. “I don’t remember enough about home to miss it.”

“I’m glad.”

“Was it really that awful?”

Crilo sat on the ground, hesitantly reaching out. Arlept found themself crawling into her lap almost without prompting, some scrap of old habit resurfacing.

“Let me tell you about the times before I wished you away.”

\--

_The year was 1873. The girl was thirteen, and she carried the child on her back as she worked punishing hours at a factory where virtually no one spoke so much as a word of her native language. The girl’s parents had died two years ago, leaving her alone with the baby to feed. She’d managed so far, but the child was sickly and the winter was cold. There was a cough going around the factory, and the girl recognized fewer and fewer of the faces around her._

_During the few hours a day when she wasn’t working, she held the child close and huddled up in whatever sheltered corner she could find. It was becoming a roll of the dice whether either of them would wake up in the morning._

_One night, colder than the rest, she remembered a story her grandmother had told her, before they left home for what was supposed to be a better world. It was a story meant to frighten bad little girls into going to bed. But this once, this one girl found hope in the story._

“I wish the Goblins would come take you away right now.”

\--

Arlept sat quietly as she spoke, scraps of faded memories drifting just barely within reach. Enough to know that Crilo spoke the truth. They shivered, the cold of those December nights returning to haunt them.

Crilo wrapped her ragged shawl around both of them and began to hum a familiar tune.

“If we can’t go home,” Arlept ventured, “what do we do now?”

“Stay here, I suppose,” Crilo said. “It’s not so bad.”

“The Goblin King won’t want me to stay with you.”

“Stuff the Goblin King,” Crilo muttered. “You’re my baby sibling and I’m not letting you go again.”

“We don’t have to stay here,” Arlept suggested, an idea forming in their mind.

“What do you mean?”

“Look around you. There are all these doors. They go to all different places.”

“So?”

“So, we could go anywhere!” Arlept jumped up, excitement shining in their features. “Look at all the possibilities. It’s not just doors to other places in the Labyrinth. It’s doors to all sorts of places.”

Crilo looked around. “But the keys… I’ve spent so long… I’ve never opened a single one.”

Arlept took her hand.

“I know which keys go to which locks. I know how to open the doors. I know where the doors go. And Crilo, there are so many possibilities. Where do you want to go?”

Crilo closed her eyes.

“I think I’d like to go somewhere sunny,” she murmured, voice soft with a hesitant sort of hope.

Arlept closed their eyes and followed their instincts to a heavy wooden door set into a tree stump. With shaking hands, they sorted through the keys until they found the two that they knew matched the locks.

They pulled the keys off the ring, and handed one to Crilo.

“It has to be at the same time,” they explained.

Crilo nodded, and the two siblings reached out to the two locks, turning their keys perfectly in sync. The locks opened. Didn’t fade away into smoke, simply unlocked.

And Arlept opened the door to their future.

_“You have no power over me.”_


End file.
